Mexican tycoon elbows past Gates for “richest man” honors

According to a Mexican financial analyst, Carlos Slim is worth about $8.6 …

Poor Bill Gates. As if watching the world grovel before the iPhone tsunami wasn't enough, now he has to face the ignominy of seeing his personal fortune pale in comparison to another's. According to one financial analyst, Mexican telco tycoon Carlos Slim has surged out of relative obscurity to bitch-slap Gates off his perch as World's Richest Being. Of course it's not official until Forbes magazine says it is, but in April, Forbes moved Slim past Gates's pal Warren Buffett to the No. 2 spot, and Slim's holdings have continued to swell.

Writing for the Mexican financial publication Sentido Comun, Eduardo Garcia estimates that Slim is worth about $67.8 billion, or almost 12 Steve Jobses. Slim's holdings in Telmex, which controls 90 percent of of Mexico's phone lines, and America Movil, Latin America's largest cell phone company, helped push him past Gates by about $8.6 billion, or about half a Steve Ballmer, or two Jeff Bezoses.

Meanwhile, the world's top two richest men are striving to become known for something other than, uh, intimidating their competition. Like No. 3 Buffett, they're giving away scads of dough. The New York Timesreports that Slim has "pledged to increase the endowments of his companies' foundations to $10 billion from $4 billion in the next four years. He promises to spend money on education and health. And he has begun to frequent the international philanthropy circuit, speaking at conferences, and hobnobbing with Bill Clinton and some of the Kennedys." We'll see if Slim puts his money where his mouth is, but imagine being rich enough to give away $40 billion and still be worth more than No. 11.